Answers to how Arnold Stephen Barber’s testimony failed to be recorded could be coming soon as the Adair County Prosecutor’s Office will begin preparations to retry the felony witness tampering case.

The Western District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Barber’s June 2011 conviction should be reversed and ordered a new trial, due to his direct examination and much of his cross-examination not being recorded at trial.

Without a complete transcript, the appellate court said it could not complete a “meaningful review” of Barber’s appeal claims.

Adair County Circuit Clerk Linda Decker was set to meet with local media Thursday morning.

Barber, a former local dentist, was convicted of two counts of felony witness tampering by an Adair County Jury. He allegedly offered a $150,000 bribe in exchange for witnesses in the Tom Oswald sex abuse case to not cooperate with the prosecution.

Barber was sentenced to five years in prison.

In their ruling, the appellate judges seemed at a loss for how the transcript was incomplete, apparently only missing Barber’s testimony.

“Somehow the machine that recorded the trial for transcription was not turned on during most of Barber’s testimony,” the ruling says.

Adair County Prosecuting Attorney Matt Wilson, who is currently on vacation, submitted a statement via fax in which he said he was disappointed, but not surprised by the ruling.

In the appellate court’s ruling, the judges indicated that in place of Barber’s actual testimony, the trial court could have taken information into the record regarding the substance of his examination.

ilson’s statement indicated he did not learn of the court’s error until well after the proceedings.

“We were made aware that there was not a complete recording of the transcript once the request of the transcript was received,” he said.

Wilson also stated that because the case was handled by Judge Karl DeMarce, an associate circuit judge, “under the current budget and court operating system, we were not given a court reporter.”

“Instead, we were left to hope that the digital recording system would work without problems. Unfortunately, it did not do so,” Wilson said. “I personally feel that any felony case that goes to trial ought to be recorded by an actual court reporter. However, that is not the case.

Instead, justice for the victims and the community continues to be delayed.”

Page 2 of 2 -

Because Wilson is out of the office he was not available to elaborate on the budget constraints to which he referred.

It was not immediately clear when the process toward a second trial would begin again.